PS4 Announcement On February 20? 4 Reasons Why It Will Happen

Right now, Sony executives are either going to be feeling very content with themselves or hiding under their desks.

A ‘See The Future’ teaser trailer emerged on Sony PlayStation’s Youtube channel last night and it heavily implies that a PlayStation 4 announcement is due on February 20th. This was backed up by Sony then sending out invites for its PlayStation Meeting 2013, which takes place that day.

Even so, there are some people who have doubted that the teaser was for a PlayStation 4 announcement. So here are four (see what we did there?) reasons why there are wrong.

Unless it’s an announcement for Wonderbook 2, in which case we’re coming back and deleted this article IMMEDIATELY.

Reason #1: The Nature Of The Trailer

The point of a teaser trailer is to prompt comment and speculation. That’s why they’re ‘teaser’ trailers, after all. Sony’s teaser trailers tend to drop enough clues that you get an inkling of what they’re about.

1940’s setting, typewriter with a weird language that someone could decode, spades on the back of the truck (explorer? Archaelogist? Nathan Drake link, maybe?), secret meeting of some kind.

Quarantine zone, masks over faces, world going to hell (police fighting civilians), ‘realistic’ setting as opposed to fantasy. The Last Of Us is based around some of viral outbreak.

While you may disagree with the notes above for each teaser trailer, you can see the line of thinking involved, as people pick out visual clues from the information presented in the teasers. Each clue is distinct because games themselves have distinct identities.

The ‘See The Future’ teaser trailer, however, has none of that. Besides the ambiguous nature of the moving lines and shapes, the only distinctly noticeable part of the trailer is when the classic PlayStation buttons show up.

So the trailer is focused on PlayStation heritage and as it’s the core of the teaser, it makes sense that the only reason to do that would be for a hardware announcement, as there are no other visual themes to riff on (especially as if it is PlayStation 4, Sony won’t want to give much away until February 20th).

Reason #2: Sony Announced Vita At PlayStation Meeting 2011

The February 20 date is for PlayStation Meeting 2013, Sony’s annual press conference or exhibition or whatever you want to call it. The semantics aren’t important. The history of it is.

It was at PlayStation Meeting 2011 where Kaz Hirai showed off the NGP to the world for the first time, which would then go on to become the PS Vita. There was a lot of idle chatter and rumours about ‘PSP2’ prior to that – MCV even suggested it would make its debut at E3 2010 – but Sony held fire until its PlayStation Meeting showcase.

Sound familiar? There has been a lot of idle chatter and rumours about PlayStation 4 – MCV again suggesting it would make its debut at E3, this time in 2012 – and Sony held fire. It looks like the announcement has again been held back for PlayStation Meeting 2013.

Reasons #3: Investors Have Been Invited

Generally speaking, investors aren’t invited to gaming press events because… well. They’re investors. There’s no need for them to be at the press event for an hour’s playthrough of the second DLC chapter of Generic Man-Shooter because they’re too busy and the events too unimportant. It would have too be something significant that is worth the time of investors and have a significant impact on the future of the company involved, particular in terms of a financial future.

Reckon a PlayStation 4 announcement qualifies, no?

Reason #4: The Timing Of The Invites

Tenuous but still valid. Sony didn’t send out invites for the event after until the teaser trailer hit (Chris Kohler of Wired is one of the American press who received an invite straight after the trailer was released).

Why does this matter? Because sending the invite might have stoked the fires of PlayStation 4 rumours before the teaser trailer hit, diluting the impact its had. This was a deliberate, calculated move by Sony and looking at the PlayStation 4 chatter that’s now running rampant across social media, you have to say it’s worked out rather unless.

And again, if it turns out this is all for Wonderbook 2, then we’re very, very sorry.